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Monday, September 14, 2009

The FA will take a "good close look" at two incidents involving Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor during Saturday's 4-2 win over Arsenal at Eastlands, chief executive Ian Watmore has confirmed.

The former Arsenal player ran the length of the pitch to taunt the away support after scoring City's third goal and had earlier appeared to kick his old team-mate Robin van Persie in the face.

Watmore told the BBC: "I was pretty unimpressed really because the problems between the Arsenal fans and Adebayor are well documented, and he ran the whole length of the field to celebrate, so I think we're going to have a good close look at that one on Monday when we see it properly in the cold light of day."

Referee Mark Clattenburg booked the Togo striker for his goal celebration, which provoked fury among many Arsenal fans who had to be restrained by pitchside stewards, one of whom needed hospital treatment after being hit by a flying object in the melee.

"I thought the stewards did a great job of calming the situation down and it was to Manchester City's credit nothing worse happened," Watmore added.

Adebayor's clash with van Persie left his former colleague with a gashed face and the Dutchman later claimed he had been the victim of a "mindless and malicious stamp".

However, Watmore refused to be drawn on the possible extent of any punishment which could be meted out to Adebayor, saying: "Our governance team will take a good look at both of the incidents that have been highlighted and will come to the media with the answers early next week. The punishments are the decision of the individual commission, if we get that far."

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporter's Federation, bemoaned the possible effects of Adebayor's actions in front of the Gunners supporters in the wake of the recent fan trouble between West Ham United and Millwall.

"The kindest thing you could say about this is that it was unwise,'' he said. "It was a very silly thing to do. It's likely to add to the risk of incidents in the future and it doesn't help eliminate the elements of disorder.

"I think most supporters, particularly following the West Ham and Millwall situation, would agree that this was a very unwise thing to do.

"Footballers get paid a lot of money to perform on a public stage so it is not realistic to judge players and fans on the same standards."